


Falling in Reverse

by Kylo_Rens_Slashed_Face (gorgonbunny)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dark, Drowning, Hypothermia, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Imprisonment, Kylux - Freeform, M/M, Sad, claustrophobic, like actually dark - there is no light, no happy ending, sad sad so sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 06:27:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7746667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorgonbunny/pseuds/Kylo_Rens_Slashed_Face
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux and Kylo awake in a pitch black cell. They have a choice on how they meet their fate...but not much of a choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling in Reverse

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, this was started as to fill the 33-day Guro challenge "Claustrophobic" trope, and I had intended it to have more of a horror angle, combining two things that give me actual nightmares: an ever-shrinking confined space and drowning. It became this super sad story, instead. So, I'm very sorry about that. This may not be the Guro you are looking for.
> 
> Secondly, this is really sad, seriously, so consider yourself warned.
> 
> Warnings for: Claustrophobic/pitch black situation and drowning and/or freezing to death.

 

\---------------------------

 

He wakes up in complete darkness, curled against a cold corner in some kind of cell. He’s in a fetal position, the back of his head is against one wall, his feet touching another. He is barefoot, and wearing only underclothes. His hands are tied together and so are his feet. He bites the bindings on his hands. It’s too tough to chew through, but there is a knot that he works with his teeth. He shifts position and realizes that the cell is longer than it is wide, so stretches his legs out, kicking something in the process. There is a startled _"oof"_ ’. Someone else is in this cell with him.

“Who’s there?” Hux shouts, or tries to shout, his throat is far too dry to shout properly, so it’s more of a dry rasp.

A moan is the only answer.

“Are you awake?” He rasps.

A moan.

Whoever is there could hear him, but couldn’t respond with more than a moan.

“Do you know where we are?” Stupid thing to say, this person can’t even form a single, coherent word, so couldn’t answer the question if he did know.

“I’m Armitage,” He says, deciding that whoever was here with him might be an enemy of the Order, and it might be a good idea not to reveal himself, yet.

“...I know...” the man manages to grunt. It’s Kylo Ren, and Armitage Hux is simultaneously relieved that it’s not an enemy and horrified that they have both somehow been captured.

“Do you know who captured us?” He asks, doubting that Kylo would know if he didn’t.

The expected answer comes, “No.”

He hears more groaning and whining noises and some shuffling - Kylo probably trying to sit up.

“Are you alright?” Hux asks.

The expected answer comes, “No.”

“Are you badly injured?”

“Not too badly... I think.”

“Give me a minute, I’ve almost got this knot untied. Don’t move, just in case you are more seriously hurt than you thought.” Hux goes back to pulling at the knot with his teeth.

The walls and floor of this cell are smooth, cold, and damp. There is no light at all, it is very disorienting. Hux thinks he sees flashes of color and feels a sense of vertigo, but he knows it’s just his brain trying to make sense of the pure blackness. He gets the knot undone and frees his hands, then reaches down to untie his ankles. Kylo has gone quiet.

“Kylo?” Hux says.

A moan.

“I’ve freed my hands, and am untying my feet, hang on, I’ve almost got it,” Hux digs his fingernails into the knot, wiggling it loose. It comes undone with a bit more effort. He unwinds the cord from his ankles, then shifts to crawl over Kylo.

He feels around and touches Kylo’s lower leg, his ankles are also bound. He feels his way up to Kylo’s arms, locates the bindings on his wrists, and begins to untie the knot.

A moan.

Hux stops, thinking that maybe one of Kylo’s arms is injured, “Can you tell me where you are injured?”

“My back... my shoulder.” Kylo mutters. Hux feels his way up Kylo's arms to his shoulders, searching for a wound. His fingers find something wet. Kylo makes a sharp noise.

“Okay, it’s okay,” Hux says softly. He tenderly feels around the wound determining it's about the size of his hand going from his mid back to his armpit. “I have to see how deep it is,” Hux says, carefully pressing his finger into the laceration. Kylo winces loudly. The wound doesn’t seem to be presently bleeding. “It doesn’t seem very deep,” Hux says.

“I think…” Kylo sighs, “I think there’s ….something still in it...”

“Okay,” Hux continues probing. He finds a deeper spot just under Kylo’s shoulder blade. He feels something sharp. Kylo winces. Hux tries to get a grasp on it, but it is small and slippery from the blood. Shit.

“Okay, I am so sorry, but this is going to hurt,” Hux tells Kylo before pressing both hands on either side of the foreign object. Kylo forces himself to stifle a cry as Hux squeezes the object out of the wound. It is sharp and jagged, like a piece of broken glass or shrapnel, about half-a-finger long. Hux presses his hand against the newly opened wound as the warm blood coats his fingers. Hux pulls his undershirt off, ripping it into ribbons to make a bandage. He wraps it around Kylo’s wound as best as he can by feel.

“Are you hurt anywhere else?” Hux asks.

“Yeah, but it’s okay, “ Kylo says. Hux carefully rubs Kylo’s back, there are several more, smaller abrasions.

“Do you remember what happened?” Hux asks.

“I think our shuttle crashed, was shot down,” Kylo mutters.

Hux tries to remember. They had left the _Finalizer_ on a simple mission to pacify a small village on a small moon, Br'llak Seven. He vaguely remembers the shuttle being hit, after that, nothing until waking in the cell. The settlements there didn’t have anti-aircraft technology. And he doesn’t recall any indication of other ships that could have shot them down.

He goes back to untying Kylo’s wrist bindings.

“Who could have done it? Do you think it was the Resistance?” Hux asks, not really expecting Kylo to have an answer.

“No, I don’t think so,” Kylo says.

It didn’t seem like the Resistance to strip them nearly naked, toss them in a pitch black cell and just leave them there. Maybe they were trying some new psychological tactics.

He gets the knot loose, and unwinds the cord then moves down to free Kylo’s feet, “Can you use the Force to figure out where we are, maybe find a way to escape?” As much as he despises the spiritual nonsense of the Force, there doesn’t seem to be any other means at their disposal.

“I don’t know where we are, but I think we might be underground, I can’t sense any other lifeforms or even any technology,” Kylo says tiredly. Hux suspects he might have significant blood loss. His wound is currently mostly scabbed over, which means they had been unconscious for at least a day. He feels around where Kylo had been lying, and, as he had feared, there was a partially dried, viscous puddle.

Hux carefully moves from the floor up into a squat, running his hands up the wall, then slowly stands. He can’t find any doors or even seams. The cell seems to be about an arm's-length wide, and two arm’s long. The wall goes up higher than he can reach. The walls and floor are chilly. There is a wet smell, like water had been in here at one point, and it hasn’t completely dried. Not musty, though, clean smelling. After going around the cell a number of times, careful not to step on Kylo, who seems to have fallen asleep, Hux sits down. He considers trying to climb the wall. Their captors are bound to come sooner or later, to at least check on them, if nothing else. So, he waits.

 

\-------------------------

 

There is silence, nothing but his own breathing, and his own mind creating sounds he knows aren’t there. He checks that Kylo is still breathing, then sits next to him, he’s starting to get shivery. Hux can’t quite lie down next to him the way they are positioned, so he carefully moves Kylo over a bit so that they can both fit. Kylo moans.

“We need to preserve body heat,” Hux says, pressing up against Kylo’s back, wrapping his arms around him. He’s lying in the drying blood, but, at the moment, this is easier than trying to maneuver a partially conscious Kylo over to the other side of the cell.

They stay like that for a long time, Hux breathing into the back of Kylo’s neck. Hux hears vague sounds, like talking or distant screaming, he shakes his head, listens again, nothing. It is just his ears ringing from lack of sound, his mind playing tricks on him. After a while, Hux’s side against the floor starts to get numb, and he has to move.

Kylo moans.

Yeah, you are an excellent cell-mate, Hux thinks.

“Are you awake?” Hux asks in a whisper, not wanting to wake Kylo up if he wasn’t. No response.

He pulls his arm from under Kylo, careful not to wake him. His arm starts tingling and he rubs it.

He sits next to Kylo until he starts shivering again, he wants to lie on his other side, roll Kylo over, but that’s the side his wound is on. He curls himself around Kylo again, on the same side.

 

\-----------------------

 

Hux had fallen asleep at some point and wakes up when Kylo rolls back on him, elbowing him in the face.

“Hey,” Hux groans, sitting up.

“Sorry,” Kylo says, “How long was I asleep?”

“I don’t know, I fell asleep, too,” Hux says, pulling himself to lean against the wall. Is it colder? He’s not sure. His fingers run across the wall, finding a slick spot. He didn’t think it had been that way before. He rubs his fingers, there is definitely something wet on the wall. He sniffs his fingers. It’s water, he’s sure that it’s water. Touches his wet fingers to his tongue. Water. He is so thirsty, he turns to lick the wall. And tears unexpectedly form in his eyes. He blinks them away. The water is cold and it tastes remarkably clean.

“There’s water running down the wall here,” Hux says. He moves out of the way so that Kylo can get to the trickle of water. It’s less than even a trickle, but at least they won’t die of thirst.

Hux feels around the walls again, searching for evidence of more water. There are a few more minuscule dribbles. He laps at one as best as he can. He looks up into the darkness.

“I’m going to try and climb up,” He says.

“I don’t foresee that ending well,” Kylo tells him.

“Well, do you foresee any action that will end well?” Hux asks.

“No,” Kylo says.

“So, you think we should just do nothing, and just sit here, and hope that someone remembers that they put us here?” Hux snaps at him.

Kylo sighs, “If you think futile acts will help you accept this fate, then, by all means, go ahead.”

“What do you mean ‘fate’? You say that like it’s something set in stone that can’t be changed. Why are you giving up so easily?” Hux says.

“I have foreseen our inevitable future,” Kylo says.

“No, you have foreseen a possible future,” Hux grumbles. He braces his back against one wall and presses his feet to the opposite wall. He inches up using his elbows, hands splayed against the wall, and follows with each foot. He’s not sure how far up he gets before he starts to weaken.

“Kylo?” he calls, mainly to determine how far up he's gone.

“Yes?” About ten feet, he estimates.

He feels around on the wall as best as he can, groping for a door or a ledge. He drags himself up a few more feet before his limbs start to shake. Shit...Shitshitshit.

He tries to slide himself back down but slips. He yelps and falls, partially landing in Kylo’s outstretched arms, both of them crashing to the floor.

“Fuck!” Hux grabs his ankle, which has become entangled in Kylo’s legs.

“I broke my ankle,” Hux groans, holding his leg as they carefully disentangle themselves.

Kylo runs his hand down Hux’s leg to the injury. He presses around his ankle, causing Hux to cry out. “It’s not broken, just sprained,” Kylo says.

“Oh ...good,” Hux says through clenched teeth, “It still hurts like a bastard.”

“Try not to put any weight on it,” Kylo tells him.

“Yeah,” Hux says.

He sits leaning his head against the cold wall, trying not to focus on his throbbing ankle.“Thanks for catching me, or I might have landed on my head,” he says after a long pause.

“You’re welcome,” Kylo says, crawling closer to him, laying his head on Hux’s chest. The adrenaline, which had been distracting Hux from the chill, was wearing off, and now the cell felt even colder than before.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what did you foresee?” Hux asks.

Kylo is quiet.

Then, “Darkness.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes, it is all there is,” Kylo says distantly.

Hux stares into the cold blackness.

 

\-----------------------

 

“How long do you think it’s been?” Kylo asks.

“I don’t know,” Hux sighs, “Several days, probably. Don’t you have some kind Force sense that can help with that?”

“No,” Kylo says with a small laugh.

“Can it do anything?” Hux grumbles.

“It’s not magic,” Kylo says.

“Have you felt anything?” Hux asks.

“Blackness,” Kylo says.

Great, just great, trapped in a cold, black, inescapable cell and Kylo isn't helping any by compounding the situation with his Doom and Gloom.

 

\---------------------

 

Kylo stands, stretching and groaning softly. Hux uses the wall to help lift himself onto his good leg. His muscles were starting to cramp.

“How’s your injury?” He asks.

“It’s tolerable,” Kylo says, “How is your ankle?”

“Barely tolerable,” Hux says.

 

\-------------------

 

“How long do you think it’s been?” Kylo asks.

“You know as well as I do, why do you keep asking?” Hux says. He sighs as he shivers into Kylo’s chest.

 

\------------------

 

Hux leans back to shift position. His ankle feels warm and tingly, which is better than the painful throbbing it had been. Kylo is asleep, huddled almost on top of him.

No one had come.

Who would do this? The Resistance wouldn’t have been this inhumane. The First Order may have been this cruel, but they were more ones to beat their captives, this kind of torture was not their style. Snoke? He definitely would be this inhumane, but why? And why use the ruse of shooting down their shuttle? Someone that wanted Hux and Kylo out of the way? Then why not just kill them outright? He couldn't make sense of it. 

“Armitage,” Kylo breathes.

“Yes, Kylo?” Hux says.

“You’re...you’re my best friend,” Kylo says, “Well, you’re my only friend, really.”

Hux smooths Kylo’s hair, “That’s not true. What about your fellow Knights?”

“They are just that, fellow Knights, we have the same beliefs, follow the same doctrines, that’s all,” Kylo says.

“To be truthful, you’re my only friend, too,” Hux says.

 

\-----------------

 

Hux moves to stand up, his stiff muscles needing to stretch. As he leans against the wall, keeping weight off his bad ankle, his back feels colder, he puts a hand to the wall. There’s more water than before dripping down the walls.

 

\----------------

 

The water is starting to gather on the floor. Hux and Kylo stand up when they notice it. Hux has to lean on Kylo slightly. Water is flowing down every inch of the wall, so there is nowhere else to lean. They listen to it dribble as it puddles on the floor. Kylo hugs Hux to his chest, Hux hugs back. Ironic, Hux thinks, their most intimate moments have come from having to cling to each other for warmth in this torture chamber. Yes, they had been having sex for years now, and slept in the same bed, but it almost seemed formal, impersonal.

“I’m sorry,” Hux says.

“For what?” Kylo asks.

“For being at odds with you,” Hux says, “for never having a moment where we were just...together and enjoyed it for what it was.”

“It’s okay,” Kylo says.

 

\---------------

 

“How long do you think it’s been?” Hux asks.

The expected answer comes, “I don’t know.”

The water is past their ankles, and it’s cold enough to numb Hux’s sprain. It had to have been several hours since the water started to pool on the floor.

“Want to try to lift me up? Maybe I missed a ledge or something when I climbed up before,” Hux says, trying to sound hopeful.

“Okay,” Kylo says.

Kylo bends down so that Hux can climb on his back. He stands and helps Hux to kneel on his shoulders, then holds a hand on the wall for stability as Hux stands. Hux is very shaky, he has to put weight on his sprain, but his fear at this point overrides his pain. He braces against the walls, cold water flows past his hands as he feels along the wall. Nothing. Nothing but water running over the smooth surface.

“Nothing,” he mutters. Kylo crouches down and helps him as he eases his way off of Kylo’s back.

“How far up do you think it goes?” Hux asks.

After a long pause, the expected answer comes, “I don’t know.”

 

\--------------

 

They are holding each other in the chest high water. It’s cold, but not cold enough. Hux was never one for giving up, but he wished that the water would have been cold enough to kill them sooner, rather than later. He tries to shake the thought out of his head. There could still be a way out. He has circled the cell more times than he could remember, feeling every inch of the wall that he could reach. He’s pushed on it and pounded on it. Solid. The walls were apparently hewn out of solid rock.

The water seemed to be flowing down the walls faster now, splashing semi-rhythmically into the ever-deepening pool. At least with the water at chest height, it isn’t so tiring having to stand. He savors any alleviating thought he can conjure as it’s become apparent that they will soon have to swim.

 

\-------------

 

Hux sometimes hears voices, his mind trying to make sense of the continuous soft plashing noise. Sometimes they are yelling in his ears, and he has to talk just to get them to shut up. Sometimes the flashing and swirling in front of eyes forms into recognizable shapes, faces. Sometimes he can see Kylo, his form glowing. Sometimes he sees a light shining above them, and he has to ask Kylo if it’s really there. All hallucinations.

“When you Force people die, you don’t really die, right?” Hux asks.

“So I’ve heard,” Kylo says.

“You don’t believe it?” Hux asks.

“I don’t know,” Kylo says.

Kylo sure didn’t know how to be uplifting, did he?

“Well, if you believed it, what happens?”

“You become ‘one with the Force’,” Kylo says.

“Do you keep your consciousness?” Hux asks.

“I don’t know,” Kylo says, “I thought I knew, once, but I don’t anymore.”

Hux feels a warm wetness on his cheeks and squeezes his eyes shut to stop it. He had never been afraid of dying. He had never been reckless, of course, but he handled himself on a battlefield with the same tactical coolness as he did from the bridge of his ship. There, it had always been planned and carried out with precision. There were occasional contingencies, changes in strategy were sometimes needed, but there was never a moment where Hux felt unsure of anything. But, here, where the remorseless water and blackness surrounded him, he isn’t even sure where his feet and fingers are, they are so cold he can’t feel them, he isn’t even sure if he was there alone and his mind had fabricated Kylo, he isn’t even sure he had ever been that other person that never feared death.

Kylo hugs him tighter, and, even if he is a figment of his imagination, it is at least comforting.

 

\------------

 

The water rises slowly beneath his chin, and his toes scrape the floor, but, eventually, his weight lifts off completely. They had avoided treading water for as long as they could. Under normal circumstances, and if the water hadn’t been so cold, Hux probably could have stayed afloat indefinitely, but here, not having had nourishment for...a week, two weeks, a month - he didn’t know, and the water being just warm enough not to freeze them, he doubted he could last more than a few hours.

They huddle as close as they can to each other, moving their arms or legs just enough to keep their heads above the water. 

They had been silent for a very long time when Hux asks, “Kylo?” almost as if to make sure Kylo was still there.

“Yes?” Kylo responds.

“I love you,” Hux says, tears beginning to fall down his face.

“I love you, too,” Kylo says.

"and I’m sorry I never said it, but it was always true," Hux sobs, “I don’t want you to die not knowing that.” 

“I know, Armitage, I have always known,” Kylo is also crying, “I am sorry I never said it, either.”

Hux puts his head in the crook of Kylo’s neck. He couldn’t remember ever really crying before, even as a child. Tears would sometimes well in his eyes, and he would angrily blink them away, but he had never let himself fully cry, until now.

He cries until he accidentally chokes on some water, then starts laughing uncontrollably. Kylo pats his back, then they both cry again.

 

\-----------

 

“H-how long do you think it’s been?” Hux asks, his breath hitching from the numbing cold.

“A while,” Kylo says.

S-so,” Hux says, “D-do you think we’ll f-f-freeze first or drown f-first?”

Kylo sighs. There is a heavy pause. It’s several moments before Kylo answers.

“You know,” Kylo says solemnly, “I can make a man’s heart stop.”

“C-can you make your own heart s-stop?” Hux asks. 

“I don’t know, I’ve never tried,” Kylo chuckles bleakly.

“Thank you for the o-offer, but I can’t leave you knowing that y-you’ll have to s-suffer,”

“I might be able to, but, obviously, I can’t do me first,” Kylo says.

“I won’t take that ch-chance,” Hux says,“If there i-is an a-afterlife, I-I would never f-forgive myself.”

“If there is an afterlife, we’ll get to see each other again, and it won’t matter,” Kylo says.

“No, I’m sorry, I can’t,” Hux says. He knows it would destroy Kylo to have to kill him, but he also knows Kylo is trying to save him from suffering any longer.

 

\----------

 

Every now and then, Hux lets go of Kylo, although each time he's afraid Kylo will vanish when he does, to feel around the cell walls for a hatch or anything. The walls are as they have always been, smooth, cold, unforgiving. After doing this a number of times, Hux comes to a realization, and it feels like a lead brick landing in his stomach. The walls have been sloping gradually inward as the water lifted them higher in the cell, which was less of a cell, and more of a shaft. He wonders if it's just another trick of his mind.

"I th-think it's g-g-getting smaller," Hux says.  

Kylo doesn't say anything.

 

\---------

 

They are chest to chest, their backs against the walls behind them, the water relentlessly flowing down around them. There isn’t much room to kick their legs, but they have braced themselves against the walls to keep from sinking. There is no indication how much higher this shaft goes, but, after this point, only one of them will be able to fit in the passageway.

Hux tries to say something but is shivering too much to get words out. He wishes he could see Kylo just once more. Hux had complained many times that Kylo didn't smile enough, but, now, he didn't care, he wishes he could see Kylo's beautiful face, even if it was his usual, brooding glower. He tries to caress Kylo’s face, but his hands are too numb to even feel anything.

His staggered breathing becomes a sob.

 

\-------

 

  
“Y-you g-go,” Kylo says,or at least Hux thinks he does, or maybe his mind is tricking him again. They have wedged themselves as far up as the both of them will fit.

“N-n--no,” Hux stutters. Hux doubts that there is a way out at the top, or even if there is a top. The shaft likely will continue to get smaller and smaller until he will be forced under the water. If one of them went on, they would both still suffer the same death, so he’d rather they die together than apart, as selfish as that was.

He hears Kylo breathing - In, out, in, out, slowly, deliberately.

Some kind of calming technique, Hux thinks, good idea.

“I-I think I c-c-can do us t-t-together,” Kylo stammers.

Oh, please don’t be lying.

Hux nods, he knows Kylo can’t see him, but he can’t make any other sound above a choking noise. He’s holding his head up as far as he can, but the water is lapping into his mouth. He breathes in through his nose, and out through his mouth.

In ...out...in...out

In….

Out….

 

In

 

\-----

 

Out

 

\----

 

\---

 

\--

 

He feels a warmth in his chest. He sees a light shining down on him, and he sees Kylo's glowing figure. Kylo smiles at him.

Kylo never smiles enough, Hux thinks, he’s so beautiful when he smiles.

 

-

 

**Author's Note:**

> ....
> 
> Thank you for reading.
> 
> ....


End file.
